Electronic Field Trips can be confusing
things, because they involve a lot of different components — and
because they're unlike any other educational program out
there. So if this is the first time you and your students
have taken an EFT, we thought we'd give a little crash-course
right off the bat.

Electronic Field Trips are the result
of partnerships between Ball State University and museums
across the country. Since most students are unable to take
advantage of the immeasurable content in faraway museums,
our program uses technology to make those resources available
to a large, national audience. We do many EFTs each year,
each with a unique topic geared toward different grade
levels.

So what is an EFT? Well, it's several
things:

It's
a website.
Each field trip includes a website specifically geared toward the
content of that EFT. This site serves two purposes: To provide you
with the background and materials to guide your students through
this field trip, and to provide interactive content that gets at
the subject of this EFT.

Each field trip has a teacher side
and a student side to it. The student side is intended
to be used one-on-one by students, and it features educational
content. The teacher side answers any questions you may
have about the field trip program. It also has suggested
classroom activities we have developed for you to use
with your students.

It's
a series of classroom activities.Besides working with museums, our program also
works with teachers. For each EFT, we take a group of teachers
to the partner museum and immerse them in the content of
the field trip. Those teachers then develop grade-appropriate
activities for other teachers to use in preparation for
the live broadcast.

In most field trips, the classroom
activities are closely linked with the activities on
the student side of this site. The activities provided
on this site are meant to pick up where the student side
leaves off, so it is recommended that you use both resources
while planning your class time.

It's
a live television broadcast.
The broadcast is the culminating element of the EFT experience. After
having spent time on the website and learning in the classroom, students
watch a 90-minute, live broadcast from the museum, park or institution
that helped us develop that EFT. The program will feature experts
from the museum, as well as other students and teachers who have
also been using the curriculum on this site.

Since the broadcast is live, it has
the potential to be an interactive experience for your
students — more than just a static television program.
Students can call in with questions that will be answered
or discussed by the onscreen experts. During the broadcast,
the website will feature an online Bank of Experts who
will answer questions in our discussion forum.

All of these components work together
to create a rich, in-depth educational experience for you
and your students. Different teachers use these resources
differently to match their own curriculum and schedule,
but we find that using all three together provides the
most complete experience and background.